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- Manyoshu
Kokoroguki mono ni zo arikeru harugasumi tanabiku toki ni koi no shigeki wa
How heavy and cheerless it is, I have found, when longing crowds in thick and fast at the time the spring haze trails across the sky.
Manyoshu - Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Mizudori no kamo no hairo no haruyama no ōtsukanaku mo omooyuru kamo
Like the spring hills the color of a wild duck's plumage, dim and hazy, my thoughts of you are uncertain and uneasy.
Manyoshu - Lady Kasa
Yami naraba ube mo kimasaji ume no hana sakeru tsukuyo ni idemasaji to ya
If the night were dark, it would be no wonder that you do not come; but on a moonlit night when the plum blossoms are out, will you still not set forth?
Manyoshu - Ki no Iratsume
Nami no ue yu miyuru kojima no kumogakuri ana ikizukashi aiwakarenaba
Like the little island seen over the waves vanishing into the clouds, ah, how I will sigh once we have parted.
Manyoshu - Kasa no Kanamura
Tamakiharu inochi ni mukai koimu yu wa kimi ga mifune no kajikara ni mo ga
Rather than pine for you at the risk of my very life, I would sooner be the handle of an oar on the ship that carries you.
Manyoshu - Kasa no Kanamura
Kono hana no hitoyo no uchi ni momokusa no koto zo komoreru ōroka ni su na
Within a single spray of these blossoms lie a hundred kinds of words; do not treat it lightly.
Manyoshu - Fujiwara no Hirotsugu
Kono hana no hitoyo no uchi wa momokusa no koto machikanete oraekerazu ya
This single spray of blossoms: unable to bear the weight of a hundred kinds of words, was it not broken off?
Yado ni aru sakura no hana wa ima mo kamo matsukaze hayami tsuchi ni chiruramu
The cherry blossoms in your garden: even now, are they falling to the ground, blown by the fierce wind through the pines?
Manyoshu - Prince Atsumi
Yononaka mo tsune ni shi araneba yado ni aru sakura no hana no chireru koro kamo
Since nothing in this world stays unchanged, it must be the season when the cherry blossoms in my garden are falling.
Manyoshu - Lady Kume
Wake ga tame waga te mo suma ni haru no no ni nukeru tsubana zo meshite koemase
For you, my little servant, I pulled these reed flowers in the spring fields without resting my hands; eat them and grow plump.
Manyoshu - Ki no Iratsume
Hiru wa saki yoru wa koinuru nebu no hana kimi nomi mime ya wake sae ni miyo
The silk-tree flower that blooms by day and sleeps by night in longing: shall I, your mistress, be the only one to see it? You too must look.
Manyoshu - Ki no Iratsume
Aga kimi ni wake wa kourashi tabaritaru tsubana o hamedo iya yase ni yasu
It seems your servant is in love with his mistress: though I eat the reed flowers you gave me, I only grow thinner and thinner.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Wagimoko ga katami no nebu wa hana nomi ni sakite kedashiku mi ni naraji kamo
The silk tree you gave me as a keepsake: will it bloom only in flower and perhaps never come to fruit?
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Harugasumi tanabiku yama no henarereba imo ni awazute tsuki zo henikeru
With mountains trailing spring haze lying between us, a month has passed without my seeing you.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Hototogisu itaku na nakiso na ga koe o satsuki no tama ni aenuku made ni
O cuckoo, do not sing so much, not until I can thread your voice together with the fifth-month balls of herbs.
Manyoshu - Fujiwara no Ioe no Iratsume
Kamunabi no iwase no mori no hototogisu kenashi no oka ni itsuka kinakamu
O cuckoo of the sacred grove of Iwase, when will you come to sing on the hill of Kenashi?
Manyoshu - Prince Shiki